Sad news...
The Doctors have agreed to stop treating Dad because his condition has deteriorated so much. Kathi asked one of the Doctors if they were asking us to give up and the Doctor said "No".

Kathi asked how it wouldn't be considered giving up if we weren't allowed to get any more treatments. The Doctor said that if Dad gets better, then they can treat the tumor.

Is that some BS, or what? How can he get better if the tumor is growing?

Basically, we don't know what to do right now. Dad is in really rough shape.

Update
Dad has been pretty unresponsive lately. However, his doctor said that the platelets and white blood cells are in the perfect range and the red blood cells should be improving soon.

Dad will get some more time to recover before we try to beat him up again with another treatment. We have a new doctor (Neurooncologist) working with us from Cedars. He will help us get the doses correct and work with our local oncologist on this next, cutting edge, treatment.

Sunday is Bill Beaton's Birthday!
He will have his loving wife, some local friends, and all of his kids with him this weekend... as well as his Grandson!

Have a great weekend.

Talking again...
Kathi wrote me an email this morning. This is part of what she wrote:

"...your dad is saying whole sentences AND I can understand every word! Last night I was holding him and I said that I wish there was more I could do to help him. He said "You're doing as much if not more that is humanly possible to do". He also said "I wonder where this is going?" I replied "Your treatment?". And he said "Yes". Wow!!! I couldn't believe my ears!!! This morning he said "We should call -----", but I couldn't understand the name. Something like Mard__. That was it. I'll continue to talk to him during the day and let you know what he has to say. "

Blah
Dad has been sleeping a lot... and that is not good. It is very difficult for him to open his eyes or speak. Not sure what to do.

We are still waiting on additional feedback from Cedars and we don't want to rush Dad into a new treatment because he is still pretty run down from the last 2 weeks. He doesn't seem to be in any pain, just lethargic.

Alex will be down this weekend for dad's 59th birthday. If you'll recall, we spent last years' birthday in the ICU at Palm Beach Gardens M.C.

Hopefully, we'll be at home this year and Dad will have a good day.

Going home... again.
Kathi will take Dad home today. They are totally tired of being in the hospital. Dad is doing much better and Cedars Sinai has offered us two new treatment plans to choose from.

1. Tarceva and accutane or
2. Tarceva and nexavar

Stable
Dad's temperature was 105 this morning. He is stable now and will be transfered out of the ER pretty soon. He's a tough son of a gun. I don't know how anyone could pull out of so many tail spins. He is not out of the woods yet, but he is doing better.

Dad's back in the hospital
Mood:  blue
Not even one day went by. Dad's temperature has sky-rocketed. The ambulance is at the house now. This stinks.

Going home...
Dad's numbers are back to normal! Kathi & Dad will head home from the hospital today at 1:30. It wasn't easy getting his blood counts back up.

Blood news...
Dad received a Platelet transfusion this morning at 2:30 am. It was finished at 5:00 am. The nurses came in every 15 minutes to do the B/P and temp. Needless to say, Dad and Kathi didn’t get too much sleep. But that’s OK because Dad’s platelets were 63,000 as of 6:40 am (yesterday was 21,000). The white blood cells climbed a little from 2.05 yesterday to 2.37 this morning (normal range is 4.5 – 10.5). The red blood cells went down from 3.24 yesterday to 2.90 today (normal range is 4.40 – 6.00). Hopefully, the Neupogen shot will kick in soon and Dad’s body will start producing the white blood cells. Maybe the platelets will increase too. I’m not sure what time they’ll do blood work today. It will be interesting to see how well he retains these platelets.

Cedars did get back to us. Dad's case will be reviewed this coming Wednesday at the Brain Tumor Board meeting.